Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said major manufacturers attribute a shortage of masks and gloves for front-line health care workers in part to a lack of government leadership in the supply chain, and she’s calling on the president to involve the government in manufacturing the scarce goods.

Cortez Masto made her comments in an interview with The Nevada Independent on Thursday, the day after she voted in favor of a $2.2 trillion emergency aid package aimed at relieving the economic fallout from the bill. 

The House is expected to vote Friday on the bill that will include massive amounts of financial aid to large companies and small businesses, as well as hundreds of dollars for most individual Americans. It’s the third bill in a series of coronavirus response legislation that included a measure to promote the development of a vaccine, and a bill to provide free COVID-19 testing and paid sick leave. 

Read on for highlights of the interview, which also included the senator’s reaction to speculation that she could be a vice presidential nominee for Joe Biden.

Some large businesses will get help through the stimulus bills to try to keep people on their payroll. Do you think casinos are going to apply for funding and which ones? 

I don't know which casinos will apply for the funding or whether they will. But I will say this — I have been on the phone with our hospitality industry, from our gamers to the small businesses, to the workers, to organized labor, to restaurant owners.

At the end of the day when it comes to our hospitality industry in Nevada, we are all in this together. There's 450,000 jobs statewide that this industry employs, 450,000 people. And it's from individuals who actually work within the casinos and those who benefit because they have a small business that works with the casinos, from our dry cleaners to our florists to small restaurants.

So the goal here, for me and the whole entire delegation as we work together on this package ... was to make sure we were taking care of everyone in our industry.

So there's a combination of things within the package that will, at the end of the day, make sure that everybody has some form of liquidity. Cause that's what it's about. We are asking people, rightfully so, to shelter in place, to stem the spread of the coronavirus. And because of that, they are potentially losing out on wages, salaries, and health care benefits.

And so the goal here is to make them liquid, put money in their pocket now, help their businesses, those small businesses so that they give them the liquidity they need, so that when this crisis is over, we can open our doors and our economic recovery can kind of spring back that much quicker.

Is there anything you would like to see in any forthcoming legislation coming out of Congress? 

Once we get it signed by the president, we get the money out, we will have a better understanding [of] what else we need to do. I am already hearing from our governor, from other governors, from hospitality, from our health care workers that more needs to be done and we are prepared to do that.

So yes, I think there is going to be a fourth package that's going to be necessary, but I think we need to wait to get this one out, get the money out there and see where, where else we can be helpful.

One of the biggest concerns right now is that health care professionals say they don't have the masks and the gloves and the personal protective equipment they need. What can you do as a senator to help address this problem?

What this package does is put more money in there to make sure that our hospitals, not only in our urban, but our rural areas, can keep their doors open and then pay for the personal protective equipment for health care workers, including the testing supplies that are so necessary. So there's money in there for that. 

The other thing though that needs to be done, and this is why so many of my colleagues and I have talked and sent letters that it is time for this president to really rely on — I know he's invoked the Defense Production Act but he hasn't done anything about it.

He hasn't set it in motion. My concern is there is no one at the national level that is managing the supply and demand of this medical equipment that we need right now. Our governor's competing with other governors, on the private market for this equipment. And we need to now manage this at a national level to make sure that the supplies are getting to the states and those local communities and to the hospitals where it is needed.

Jacky Rosen and I were on two conference calls. We wanted to reach out to the manufacturers to find out what were the barriers, what's going on here. So we had separate conference calls, one with Cardinal Health and the other with Medline, who produces a lot of these supplies.

And the one thing that we came away from is they're getting misinformation. They're hearing at the federal level from Health and Human Services and FEMA. They're hearing different things and nobody is coordinating one area — one person taking control and command to coordinate with everyone. And so that is part of the problem.

What I am hearing from these manufacturers that are producing some of these is they want somebody at the federal level to take control to start managing all of the supplies because that is why we are seeing, unfortunately, price gouging going on. 

What would be the next step to have someone in charge of this manufacturing situation?

The president needs to say, as he invoked the Defense Production Act, now he needs to set it in motion and he needs to have one agency, whether it's HHS, FEMA, whoever it is, take control of not only that supply and demand of the, this medical equipment nationally but the production of it, to understand what those barriers are cause some of the barriers are.

Some of the products or the chemicals we need are not even in the United States. They're in another country. We know the test kits alone need a reagent and we're low on that reagent. Well, some of that reagent comes from Maine, but some of it comes from out of the country. And so we need somebody at the federal level that is managing all of that and taking control.

Sen. Harry Reid has asked Joe Biden if he could have you as his running mate. Would you consider being a potential running mate for Joe Biden?

I am so honored to have my name even out there and thought of in that way. But I will tell you right now, I am focused on my job here in the United States Senate. I am honored every single day that I get to work on behalf of the state that I was born and raised in and all the people and businesses that live there.

And really, my focus now is just getting us through this crisis and doing what I can at a federal level to make sure that we have the resources we need in our state and individuals have the health care that they need. 

What is your office doing to try to meet the needs of Nevadans without health insurance, including undocumented people?

What I want people to know, first of all, is if they have any questions about anything that's going on, whatever their needs are, to reach out to my office. We have case workers that are bilingual, speak Spanish. We are here to help them and work, get them the resources they need or help them through this process.

I will say in this particular package that we've passed, there's a couple of things I want people to know. The package includes $1.3 billion to cover testing costs at community health clinics. And I know those community health clinics in our state serve patients regardless of their immigration status.

So I would tell anyone that if they feel the symptoms or they didn't feel well because, and they're having the symptoms of coronavirus, to go to one of those community health clinics. The other thing they need to know is if they seek that assistance, it will not be counted against them as part of their public charge analysis.

We were able to, to work with the federal government to make sure that anybody seeking attention and medical needs or assistance because of this virus, will, this will not be used against them. We want people to come forward and we want them to get the healthcare that they need. 

A couple of other things. There's unemployment benefits that we expanded in this package. Anyone who has a valid work authorization during both the time that they were employed and the time they were unemployed can apply for these benefits. This includes both DACA and TPS beneficiaries.

The only thing that, I think, this bill has a shortcoming in is on the direct payments that go to individuals and families. Only those with valid Social Security numbers qualify for the one time payment.

We published an article about fears among ICE detainees that they could be vulnerable to catching coronavirus in these detention centers. What can be done about this situation? 

So what we have done at the federal level is I was part of a letter along with my colleagues that we sent it to ICE demanding what type of action they are going to take to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in their detention facilities. And I'm waiting. Many of us are waiting for that response. 

There's other ways that we can release them into the community without having to detain them. 

We have so many new technologies now and things that we can do to work with them and their attorneys to help them out.

And I think that's what we should be focused on. You know, many, many folks in ICE right now, they're not violent criminals. And what I'm seeing and hearing is that some of them are even put in cells with violent criminals. They're not. And so we have to, if we’re really gonna stem the spread of this virus, then we have to focus on every population.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June on the legality of DACA. What can be done for our DACA population that was already concerned about this, and that stress has been compounded by the coronavirus?

I think at this point in time, my concern is that this administration, even though he has said that if he wins this litigation — and I mean this president, as the one who brought this litigation forward —  if he wins, he's not gonna do anything to harm our Dreamers.

I don't trust him and I don't think anybody should in this case, because we've seen what he's done with our immigrant populations. pitting them against one another, calling them horrific names and instilling fear in our community. What it requires us right now is to continue to fight to protect this community.

But at the same time, I'll be honest with you, it means that we have to all come out and vote and elect individuals who are going to stand up for everyone in this country. We are a nation of immigrants … Most of us come from immigrants who've come to this country for a better life, and I think that is the beauty of the United States, and that's worth fighting for.